Old 421 Park Access to Tanglewood- Fun, Challenging, Beautiful and a lot of Firsts for HRL Paddlers

Image via Wikipedia We launched on time, which was a first! This was because of a few wrong turns and a defective navigational system. Some call it "Neal" system, but I believe it was a "Terry-Linda-Donald-Neal" system. The Terry part wasn't programmed in from the start. The Linda part needed fine tuning because her vision was like that of the hubble telescope when first launched( never hand a map to a person to read going down the road who needs glasses). The Donald system would not input . The Neal part of our navigational system offered to much unclear input and choices. Now try to put these in play when driving down the road pulling boats and you are going to take a few wrong turns.

Our impromptu navigational system caused us to run 30 minutes behind schedule. When we finally recalculated the correct coordinates, we opted not to shuttle all the vehicles back to Tanglewood, to make our 9 am launch. We were fortunate enough to have decided to drop two cars not carrying boats, at the Tanglewood Access, on the way up to the Old 421 park. This was the only saving grace, that kept the launch on time. By the time we reached our final destination at the end of the day, it seemed like we had dropped the cars off on Friday morning instead of Saturday morning. It was that long a day for us.

We picked up a new part to help correct our flawed navigational system at the Huntville Access on our way to the way to Old 421 Park. The Huntsville access reminded us more of the access area in Davidson County, at the Davidson/Davie line on Hwy 64, but much worse. Once we added the " Montie Nav system" at Huntsville, it formatted all the bad on board data and gave us an accurate route to the 421 Park. Once there we met Butch, Deborah and Mike who were paddling with our group for the first time. Everyone else from HRL Paddlers was there and ready to go. We made the 9:00 am launch on time.

Now that we were on the water, not much could go wrong, since only 2 directions were involved. Even the four flawed parts knew to go down river, but we had our our Montie Nav System with us, just in case. We arrived at the Shallowford Road Access as planned. We had estimated an arrival time of 11:00 am and made it according to schedule. I'm sure this impressed the new paddlers Jan and Kay who joined us. Now at the end of the run, I'm sure their impression of our planned timing changed.

We did linger at the Huntsville Access a little bit longer. It became more of a social hour at one point. This was due in part because some of the group opted to take out out when they discovered the Montie part of the nav system was leaving. We said our goodbyes to our new friends. We all welcomed our two new paddlers, who would join us for the remainder of our run. Kay and Jan joined us for what they expected would be only a 4hr paddle, a distance of 10.9 miles. Even with the delay, Jan would make it back in time for the 6 pm, pool party.

Once we launched from the Huntsville Access off Shallowford Road, things began to change. Our navigational clock was now one hour off schedule, having left Shallowford at 12:00 pm instead of around a 11:00 am. The Terry Chat Time at the Access area hadn't been allowed for. Once we got that part running again, our new ETA would put us coming into Tanglewood around 4, or that is what we thought. The old navigational systems still tried to take over. The "it's around the next bend", Terry Alarm sounded several times. It became redundant for the last 5 miles of our trip. Others in the group learned to ignore the false readings, looking only for the I-40 Bridge. The rest of our navigational system went silent and only the words "Kill Neal" were murmured.

Now add to the fact that our navigational system didn't allow for zig zagging or low flow. Our estimate of a 4 hour paddle quickly turned into a 6 hour one. Instead of a 11 mile trip, now it seemed more like a 20 mile trip. "Are we there yet", was a phrase we heard often over the last 5 miles. Our paddlers decided that Terry's hearing needs to be checked, because he was hearing cars 5 miles before we got to the I 40 bridge. Donald said it was the wind blowing through his hollow skull that made him think he heard cars. The stretch of water between Huntsville and Tanglewood slowly became a "Bridge to Far". Keep in mind our group paddles every weekend. We had just completed a 14 mile run on the lake the week before, so we knew we were in condition for these type of runs. After all we paddle more flat water than most people. All of us paddling thought this was much longer stretch than the map showed. Since Terry forgot to program in the GPS, all we could tell you is that we were paddling at rate of about 3-3.5 mph. Still we enjoyed our run. I know this was a first paddle for Jan and Kay and we promise, we won't do this to them again. The last couple from Rowan that went with the group on a long paddle, hasn't been heard from in months. So if we don't see Jan or Kay again, we do understand why. Unless you have a death wish, never say "It's around the next bend" to them.

There is not much our group can't handle when it comes to paddling long distances now. We paddled the lowest flow in the recorded history of the Yadkin River, 203 Cubic Feet Per Second(the norm is 1700 CPS). We saw the most rocks probably anyone will ever get to see, while paddling on this stretch of river. There were many times I found myself taking the wrong turn in the maze, having to retrace my steps.

T& D boat towing service got to be put in use for the first time. This was good practice for some in our group and it adds another dimension to our rescue prowess.

We finally pulled into to Tanglewood around 6 PM. By the time we shuttle the remaining vehicles back from Old 421 access it was around 7 PM. I got home a little 7:30 having left that morning at 6:45. This was full day of paddling for everyone. I'm sure Fran got more than enough for her fix. We may not paddle Labor day, since we paddled enough Saturday for the next 4 weekends. I'm sure Jan and Kay may be thinking they have paddled enough for the next 4 years.

My estimate on rapids was "dead on", we may have even had more. There were 4 rapids on the Old 421 to Shallowford run and maybe 16 rapids on the Shallowford to Tanglewood Run. There might have been two class 2's , but for the most part all were ones. Had the water been up another 1.5 feet and the flow been up to around 900, these rapids would have made for a perfect run. I don't plan on paddling this any time soon, unless we have these levels and rates. This was a historic run for all the people who paddle this. They can add this to their own "Back in the Day "Quotes. They will tell their stories how a crazy guy convinced them into paddling in the worst possible conditions on the Yadkin River.

The low river conditions are record breaking. Let's hope they don't get lower. I hope you enjoy the pictures we took below. Playing the Music Player below the slide show, will add to your enjoyment of watching the slide, just forward to a song you like. All kidding aside this is what being in a paddling group is all about. We all had fun!

The prettiest picture in the slide show below, besides that of me, was the "I-40 Bridge"!